Big Six energy suppliers set to lose customers

THE BIG six energy suppliers could face the loss of a quarter of their customers over the next six years, knocking £500m a year off their collective profits, according to a report issued yesterday.

Some large companies could be driven out of the market, the research arm of Citigroup investment bank said in a report released on Wednesday.

The rise of small suppliers highlighted in the Citi report, UK Energy Policy – Unwinding the Big 6, said Ed Miliband’s promised price freeze had played a key role. And the power of competition would please the government, too.

The report said: “Due to increasing competition we see the market share of the ‘Big 6’ in energy supply declining from 98 per cent in 2013 to below 70 per cent by 2020.

“When combined with declining demand and lower margins the total profit pool available to the large energy suppliers could fall [by about] 40 per cent from [about] £1.2bn in 2013 to just £700m.”

But, it added, consumers would still suffer as the average dual-fuel bill would be at least 20 per cent higher by 2020.